The Trades Hall and Literary Institute has won the City of Melbourne’s 2025 Sustainability Award for its carbon footprint reduction project, highlighting the team’s efforts in transitioning to greener operations without compromising the building’s historical integrity.
Trades Hall, built in 1859, is one of the world’s oldest continuously active trade union buildings. In 2018, the team implemented a carbon reduction program to abolish gas, use energy more efficiently and install solar panels. Since then, carbon emissions have more than halved with more efficiencies to come as the team aims for net zero.
Dr Colin Long, Senior Just Transitions Organiser at Victorian Trades Hall Council, said the team was guided by its climate and energy goals.
“We wanted Trades Hall to practise what we preach on climate and energy efficiency. If we are encouraging organisations and governments to transition, we have to show what’s possible in our own building.”
Antony Moore, Buildings and Logistics Organiser, says the work in upgrading a building built in the 1800s required creativity and overcoming specific challenges.
“Electrifying a building from the 1800s isn’t straightforward. We were dealing with old timbers, heritage constraints and systems that were never built for modern climate control. Every stage meant working around the historic fabric rather than ripping it out, which meant keeping a lot of embodied carbon in place.”
The team’s efforts have paid off. Electricity-related emissions fell to 280 tonnes per year before solar from 398 tonnes. Solar is expected to remove a further 100 tonnes annually.
The building now operates off-grid at certain times and exports around 9 kWh to the grid at peak.
The building has also consolidated more than 20 grid connections into a streamlined system and reduced waste by removing individual office bins and cutting 15,000 plastic bags per year.
Heritage architect Jack Tweedie from Lovell Chen notes that the project balanced conservation and performance. The architecture firm believes the best way to preserve a building was to make it functional to modern users.
“In the case of Trades Hall that meant ensuring the building fit the needs of a 21st century office workplace and could comfortably accommodate the diverse events program that the building hosts.
“A significant challenge but considering how integral Trades Hall has been to the fabric of the city and state over its long history, an essential one,” Tweedie said.
